Canadian Exports: Pair of young Canucks star in Singapore

June 19, 20121:56PM EDT

Gavin Day

Jordan Webb is certainly making a name for himself in Singapore — a league which doesn’t usually come across the Canadian soccer fans’ radar. The 24-year-old Canadian midfielder is in his third season with Hougang United in the S-League and is tied for third in the league in scoring.

Webb scored his eighth goal of the season on Thursday in Hougang’s 1-0 win over Tanjong Pagar as the league in the city-state resumed following almost a month off. His goal ties him for third in league scoring, three back of top spot. Hougang is ninth in the 13-team league.

Also playing in Singapore is Sherif El-Masri, who was a member of the Canadian Under-23 national team that took part in Olympic qualifying in the US in March.

El-Masri (above) plays for Courts Young Lions, a team operated by the Football Association of Singapore made up only of players under the age of 23 who play in the S-League to expose younger players to professional soccer competition.

The Scarborough, Ontario, born midfielder is one of only a handful of players who isn’t a Singapore national, but he’s able to make himself a regular in the lineup. He played the full 90 minutes in his club’s 2-1 win over Woodlands Wellington last Friday. Young Lions are in eighth place with the win.

Also getting back to action this week is the Finnish Veikkausliiga, which featured a game with Canadians coming up against each other.

Sunday saw Mason Trafford’s Mariehamn taking on Riley O’Neill and his MyPa team. Both players got the start as their teams played to a scoreless draw. Trafford played the entire game and O’Neill was taken off with just less than 20 minutes left in the game.

Mariehamn and MyPa are in third and fourth places, respectively, in Finland’s top flight.

Forward Frank Jonke also saw action in Finland over the last week after signing a contract with a new team in the league. Jonke played for FC Inter Turku last season but signed a contract with FF Jaro earlier this month.

In his first game for his new club, Jonke played the entire game this past Saturday in Jaro’s 3-2 win over TPS. He followed that up Tuesday by rewarding his new club’s faith in him by scoring a late equalizer in their 1-1 draw with former club Inter Turku.

Those two games over the past week doubled the points that Jonke had earned in the previous nine games. Still, with just eight points, Jaro sit on the bottom of the Veikkausliiga.

In Sweden, Jamaal Smith played the entire game for Syrianska IF as they fell 3-1 to Sandviken. Syrianska is in dead last in the third-highest Swedish League with just four points in 10 games.